High temperature combustion is often employed in many industrial processes such as in glassmelting. Corrosion and fouling of burner nozzles are common problems in high temperature industrial processes. Water cooling of metallic nozzles is often used to prevent high temperature corrosion or melting. Although water cooling is effective in a relatively clean furnace atmosphere, it adds to the complexity of the combustion system and also could escalate the corrosion and fouling problem when the furnace atmosphere contains condensible vapors. Ceramic nozzles have been proposed for use with high temperature combustion as a way for avoiding water cooling. However, presently available ceramic nozzles tend to develop cracks due to thermal and other stresses and are not considered dependable for many industrial applications. The problem of designing a non-water cooled burner is particularly severe where the burner employs oxygen or oxygen-enriched air rather than air as the oxidant because of the high flame temperature generated.
Accordingly, it is an object of this invention to provide a metallic nozzle type combustion system which may be effectively employed with high temperature combustion without the need for water cooling.
It is another object of this invention to provide a metallic nozzle type combustion system which can be used with oxygen or oxygen-enriched air as the oxidant to carry out high temperature combustion without the need for water cooling.